


In Blood

by Imadeamistake



Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Episode Tag, Gen, Kayfabe Compliant, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-06
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2019-03-01 07:53:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13290432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imadeamistake/pseuds/Imadeamistake
Summary: Kevin wondered if the rest of the locker room would be forgiving if Sami stormed out right now this second, and told them all he’d made a terrible mistake. Probably not.(set after Smackdown on November 21st 2017)





	In Blood

**Author's Note:**

> Yes November 21st was a long time ago. Sorry about that. In short, Sami and Kevin fought the New Day in a lumberjack match, at the end of the show Kevin escaped and Sami was left to get beaten up in the middle of the ring. No mention of it was made the next week, but it bothered me then and it still bothers me now I guess.

By the time he noticed Sami wasn’t behind him, it was too late to go back. That’s what he told himself anyway. There had been Daniel Bryan to deal with and Sami could take care of himself for ten minutes. Kevin refused to feel guilty. Yes, the Smackdown roster were determined to rip the two of them to pieces but that was all Shane McMahon fault. If they thought about it for a second, they'd see that he was the one who had let them down. Shane, who had so little trust in his own wrestlers that he'd put himself on the survivor series team rather than any of the younger, stronger men desperate for a chance under the spotlights.

Kevin knew a midlife crisis could be tough, he'd teamed with Jericho for most of last year after all. It seemed incredibly unfair that just when he’d finally escaped that, here he was bearing the brunt of Shane’s. He put it down to appalling luck.

The door slammed open. Sami staggered in without looking over. He got a bottle of water and drank, emptying half of it over his head, still panting for breath. His face was bright red. Bruises and red lines glowed on his skin. He looked like he'd been coloured in by a child who’d gotten bored and scribbled to the end. 

"Hey man. I’m sorry they got you."

Sami didn't reply. He let out a long, ragged breath and slumped down onto a chair, head in his hands. Water and sweat dripped onto the floor.

"I didn't realise you weren't behind me." Kevin said.

Sami stayed hunched over, back moving up and down. Kevin leaned over to try and see his face, but it was guarded from all angles. There was a red mark on Sami’s back that would darken into a deep bruise tomorrow. Kevin fished into the cooler for an ice pack. They had stashed all their bags in this room before the show, it was little more than a storage room with some chairs and boxes in, but they couldn’t leave their stuff in the main locker room. They weren't stupid.

"You need some ice on that." Kevin said and slapped it onto the bruise without waiting for a reply. 

"Fuck!" Sami lurched up. "Get off!" He threw an unsuccessful swipe at Kevin’s arm holding the dripping ice pack.

"Take it then. You need it."

"And who's fault is that again!? Hmm?" The outburst came like steam out of a kettle, anger only barely disguised as mild irritation. At least Sami was finally looking at him. 

"I really thought you were behind me!" Kevin slid the ice back on. Sami winced and breathed in sharply, but he didn’t move away this time.

Kevin wondered if the rest of the locker room would be forgiving if Sami stormed out on him right now this second, and told them all he’d made a terrible mistake. Probably not. Sami had been burning his bridges proactively in the last few weeks. He slammed Shane to anyone who would listen until nobody was left who would. After the loss at survivor series, things had gotten even worse. Morale was low and in their misery the locker-room turned on Kevin and Sami even more strongly than before. Sami’s insistence on insisting that he'd told them all along they were doomed - and he didn’t know why they were so surprised about it - had done nothing to cool anyone’s temper.

The roster was a pack of wolves howling for blood, and Kevin and Sami were trapped in a tree above them, surrounded. There was nothing to be gained now by climbing down and having a polite conversation with said wolves. Sami had made his choice. Made it over and over again with his every action and word. He wouldn't leave Kevin now because he couldn't. It was as simple as that.

Kevin hoped desperately Sami was reaching the same conclusion.

Sami rolled his eyes and finally accepted the ice pack from Kevin, moving it on to his left knee. Kevin hugged his own numb fingers to get the feeling back.

"I don't know why I expect you to do anything that I know you won't do." Sami said cryptically.

"I don't know why you do either," said Kevin "Cheer up, we won the match."

"Like that matters at all!" Sami’s arms fluttered at the futility of it all. "Shane made his point pretty clear, he can do what he likes to us and no one will care. Everyone loves him!" It was unfair. Kevin thought. Sami was infinitely more lovable than Shane McMahon.

"You need to stop caring what they think about you - you say you don’t, but you clearly do." He continued past Sami's noise of protest. "So, what if you and I are the only ones who can see what he's like, it doesn't really matter." Sami groaned and swept his fingers as if to brush away Kevin's words.

"Except it does matter when everyone else out there is on ‘Team Shane’ and said team wants to see us beaten into the ground."

"Yeah but everyone on ‘Team Shane’ is an idiot."

"I'm beginning to think I'm the stupidest person alive."

"Well you aren't."

"Oh, I must be in the running.” And the words were bitter. “Because out in the ring, there was a second when I thought you might actually come back and help me." To be fair to Sami, there had been a moment when Kevin had thought the same thing. But he wasn't stupid. 

"Sami, I'm not going to run in and punch out anyone who lays a finger on you, that’s ridiculous. You can defend yourself."

“I’m not saying I can’t!” His shoulders slumped, and he hesitated a moment before carrying on. Sami didn’t know what he wanted to hear, Kevin realised, which meant it would be that much harder to find what to say to put him at ease. “I’m as good as anyone here, but I can’t beat the whole roster at once and you know what? I shouldn’t have to.”

When he was right he was right. Kevin could feel his own weak justifications disintegrating as quickly as they formed in his mind.

"It was the smart thing to do." Kevin said finally. "It makes more sense for at least one of us to be in good shape. And I'm the one who has to fight Orton next week."

Sami must have been as dissatisfied with that excuse as Kevin was, because he turned away under the pretence of rummaging through his suitcase. Kevin was left back at square one, staring at the back of Sami's head and trying to puzzle out what direction the wheels inside were turning. There was another dark red mark on Sami’s upper arm and Kevin's brain derailed trying to think through the match and post-match to work out how it got there. He had an overwhelming urge to touch it, to put his thumb over it and press deeply into Sami's skin. He clutched his own forearm instead, fingers gripping hard enough to bruise.

"So, basically, what you're saying is that if next week it's you being pummelled three on one I should just, take off?"

"Yes." Kevin agreed too quickly.  

"That's stupid." Sami snorted. "We're friends again because I got involved in your business when I probably should have just stayed out of it!" His boot kicked back and forth scraping against the floor. "By your logic I should have left you to get crushed by Shane."

"Not by _Shane_." Kevin said disgusted.

"You know I didn't save you just because I was sick of his bullshit, right?” He didn’t like the way Sami was looking at him; it was steady and calm, the kind of face that a person makes when they know they are in right and knows that the other person knows it too. Winning the argument after that just being a matter of patience.

Kevin honestly hadn't dared to ask why; had been so taken by surprise by Sami's allegiance at first that he hadn't examined it. He didn't want to see the reasons for it, to know would be to see the edges where Sami's unexpected affection ended.

“It turns out, there's no one with a shred of honour in this place.” Sami let out a long breath and carefully ran his hand over the bruise on his arm that Kevin had been so fixated on before. “If there's no one left to trust, why shouldn't I stick with you?” Kevin could think of a lot of reasons. “Even if I can't trust you as much as I want to, at least I like you." His eyes were fierce, daring Kevin to prove him wrong.

Kevin didn’t trust himself to say anything that wouldn’t be disgustingly sentimental, so he swung his arm around Sami's shoulders and held him tightly in something only a few inches away from companionable headlock. Sami didn’t seem to mind.

"There is no such thing as a fair fight in this place." Sami continued, curling and uncurling his fingers as he spoke. "If we don't stay back to back, if I don't help you, and you don't help me, we're both going to get crushed in the end. You understand that, right?"

“Yes.” Said Kevin pulling Sami even closer to himself in an octopus hug. It couldn’t be comfortable, but Sami didn’t pull away. Instead he put his own arms around Kevin and squeezed him back just as tightly.

 

 


End file.
